Jack Cohen's Blog about Israel and other daily amusements

A handle

The handle (“yadit”) of our refrigerator broke some time ago. It is a long plastic handle that came apart at the top. I fixed it with sticky tape, but eventually that came off too. I called the company to see if I could get a replacement, but they said that I would have to pay for a service man to come, minimum charge NIS200 ($50), and then I would have to pay for the handle, if they had it. I thought there must be another way, so I looked in the yellow pages (yes, we have them here and in English) and I found the address of a Tadiran dealer, and I drove there, but it didn’t exist anymore. So I decided I had to take more serious action. There is a “fix-it” man in Netanya who advertizes for the English community, but he has a bad reputation. Nevertheless he has a shop where he stores lots of old parts. I went there and he went upstairs for a while and came back with a handle that was quite different. Nevertheless, with no other option I decided to buy it, but he wanted NIS 100 for it. I told him it was too much and we bargained and I bought it for NIS 50. As I was driving away from there I realized that I was just around the corner from an electrical supply place where we buy appliances because the owner speaks English and is very helpful. I went there and he told me that he doesn’t have such a thing, but there is a supply store a few shops down and they might have it and might be open.I walked down to this store and it was open, and inside there was an old man sittting and reading the newspaper. I showed him the handle (“mekulkal” – broken). Without uttering a word he got up and walked to the back of the store, climbed a ladder and took the identical handle down off a shelf. He charged me NIS 80 for it, but it was worth it.I just fixed it, and it is perfect. I feel as if I beat the system, as if I triumphed in the jungle. A great victory over chaos. One must persevere. Does anyone out there want to buy the extra handle I have, only NIS40?